A place to talk about the joys and challenges of raising my miracle baby! Avery was born with congenital hydrocephalus in February 2006 and was diagnosed with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy when she was 14 months old.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Avery has been sick with a stomach flu or something since Sunday. Again. She just had one a couple of weeks ago, and now she has it again. And this time it seems to be worse and lasting longer. I haven't taken her to the doctor, but if she's still as bad tomorrow then I think I will, even though they'll probably just tell me it's a stomach virus and we just have to wait it out. Poor baby is really unhappy with it. During the day she keeps on getting little pockets of energy when she doesn't feel too bad, so she'll try to play a little bit, and then she'll suddenly say "I feel sick, I need to lie down" or "I have a headache, and need to have a nap for a little while" Poor sweet girl.It started on Sunday night when she woke up several times quite unhappy and feeling bad. So I ended up bringing her downstairs to sleep on her little makeshift bed in the tv room, and I set myself up on the couch and turned on a quiet movie for her to relax to. Then she suddenly told me "I need to puke", so I grabbed a plastic tub and she threw up. Probably more than you needed to know, but it's just that that's the first time I think that she's told me she's needed to throw up before she's already vomited all over her pillow, so it was great! Not great that she had to, but great that she told me in time! Anyway, she threw up a couple of times that night. She had a bit of a fever (about 99.8 F)all day on Monday, and spent most of the day like this:Notice how sad and sorry for herself she looks! She was watching a movie and holding onto her chuck-e-cheese birthday balloons (I had no idea those things lasted so long! Her birthday was almost a month ago!!!), they seemed to comfort her a little :)

And cookie monster of course... talking to him and telling him how sick she was seemed to help too :)

This was today. She was watcing Enchanted and needed her "Panato heads" to watch with her. (They are all her own creations by the way - quite "normal" looking today, no extra arms or eyes on top of heads!) This was one of the times that she'd had a little energy so she was playing with her potato heads and having fun with that, then all of a sudden felt sick again and said she needed to lie down for a little while. And a couple of times while she was lying there she said "I'm busy!!" which means "dizzy" in Avery-speak. All she's had to eat or drink today and yesterday is pediasure. Every now and then she asks for something else, so I bring it to her, but then she won't eat it. She has had apple juice a couple of times, but has vomited afterwards both times, so now I'm not letting her have that anymore, so it's just pediasure.

She's sleeping downstairs again tonight. I put her in the recliner before bed and gave her some pediasure and told her I was taking Brogan upstairs to get him ready for bed and then I'd come back to get her, and by the time I came back she had fallen asleep! Poor girl's exhausted! So I carried her upstairs and put her in bed where she sadly whined "No, I need to say prayers!!" so I said "Okay, do you want to just say it in bed?" and she said "Okay" and she kept the same whiny tone of voice the whole time she prayed. I couldn't help but smile as she whined,

Dear Heavenly Father, We thank thee for this day, we thank thee for this many blessings, please bless our friends, please bless our school, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love that she just had to say her prayers even though she was practically asleep and she felt horrible! I love that girl!She woke up about an hour later just inconsolable though, so I ended up bringing her downstairs. So I'm being very quiet, and I'll be sleeping on the couch again tonight. Hopefully tomorrow she will be feeling better.